The uninhabited islands and fjord-carved coast of southeast Alaska's Inside Passage are too rugged for roads; transport to most communities requires a plane or a ferry. Take Kake (pronounced cake), for example. A tiny town of 700 on the western shore of Kupreanof Island, Kake is reachable via a 45-minute flight from Juneau. From there, Island Excursions offers customized one-week kayaking trips (U.S. $1,700 per person, including meals, equipment, and lodging; www.kayak-islandexcursions.com) to places that bigger boats can't travel.

One great option is the route through the isolated isles in the Keku and Sumner Straits, south of town. The first night is spent camping in prime bald eagle habitat, where, in the surrounding waterways, hundreds of humpback whales breach day and night. Spend the next night at Rocky Pass, southeast Alaska's geological masterpiece. The luminescent quartz marvel is studded with rare barrerite and fluorite crystals that sparkle in the dark. Next, take two days and paddle southeast into the shallow and boulder-strewn Sumner Strait, passing desolate Kuiu Island, home to the largest density of black bears in North America (up to five per square mile or eight square kilometers). To complete the hundred-mile (161-kilometer) round-trip, turn back.

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From the print edition, August 2005